I've been building up my homebrew over the last couple months and I recently made a breakthrough. I was trying to give every core race a distinct and interesting place in the world. So far I had been struggling a lot with gnomes. Gnomes are my favorite player race and I wanted to do them justice by giving them a society better than the secluded hobbitish towns and villiages they are given in the core rules. I've decided the gnomes will live on a series of volcanic island chains and they will have a large navy and trade operations. The small sailors thread was a big help for what i've designed so far.
But I started thinking about how dangerous it would be to trael with a large group of humanoids supported by one vessel. After all pretty much any creature with a swim speed and a hatchet can severely damage a ship. Anything more fierce, like a dragon or kraken, would simply rip the hull open and watch the crew drown. So with these things in mind I decided that D&D ships should be outfitted with the proper counter measures to deal with the many underwater threats.
Thats where I could use some help. So far I've got detection spells for radar. Perminant illusions of underwater targets (a fake rudder or an illusion to make a reinforced area look like a weak spot to slow down sabotage attempts). And razor wire that fires out from the back of the ship perpindicular to the way the ship is facing, arcs out in a wide loop, then travels to the front of the ship where it connects to a chain and is quickly and powerfully retracted, severing any tenticles or claws that may have attatched themselves to the ship and making a mess out of any climbing borders. These death cables would be on both sides of the ship and there would likely be several rows of them per side.
So if anyone gets any ideas for gnome flavored ships or countermeasures plase feel free to post.
thanks
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A good supplement would be Classic Play: Book of the Sea...
it has rules for constructing individualized vessels and is D20 ready...
that uot of the way... if you have any of the old SpellJammer books lying around you could always convert SpellJamming weapons(Gnomish varities)into sea going counter-parts...
When I have time to sit down with my books I'll post with some thing more useful...
Game on
How about something from the wonderful world of chemical warfare?
An underwater smokestick to cut visibility in the water
The reverse, an alchemal recipe that causes creatures in the water to glow (easier to spot).
A stinking cloud equivalent that operates underwater only (sort of tear gas a la Jaques Cousteau).
Tanglefin bags - tanglefoot that works underwater.
A variety of thunderstone that explodes after 1 round of immersion in water. Water being a better medium for carrying sound, they might be more effective against underwater foes.
A powder that removes oxygen from the water, threatening asphyxia to any gilled creatures caught in its area of effect.
Now some of these things might upset the local sea elf/merfolk population, leading to some interesting tensions between your seafaring gnomes and those who dwell beneath the waves.
Just a few ideas, basically adaptations of well-established items in the Player's Handbook. I'm sure you can come up with some more.
Gnice Gname.
How about outfitting a ship with a layer of metal on its underside that can be charged with energy? If you charge it with cold magic, it forms a layer of ice that will provide that much more protection against sub-aquatic attacks and will help the ship stay afloat! If you charge it with lightning magic, it'll zap any creature that takes a weapon to it (not sure if this would work according to physics, but who cares because it's magic right?) If you charge it with fire magic, it heats the nearby water, making assualt equally uncomfortable.
I thought no one liked a tattletail, dog breath.
Besides, this is covered by artistic liscence.
So go chase a bone or your tail or bite people and infect them with lycanthropy, or whatever it is you do.
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I thought no one liked a tattletail, dog breath.
Besides, this is covered by artistic liscence.
So go chase a bone or your tail or bite people and infect them with lycanthropy, or whatever it is you do.
I go to winetastings, and the opera, and such fauncy diversions. I'm just here to give this unwashed rabble some culturication lessons.
(how I say this stuff and keep a straight face is anyone's guess).
When you're in the Internet, no one can see your face...
at least I hope they can't, for your sake!
I would follow up, but we've both contributed a little to much to the "thread derailment" effort here.
(... flea bag.) ;P
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Here is an idea that I just thought up:
A prestige class that is something like a cavalier, but one that is water based. He can gain the services of an aquatic mount, maybe even get water breathing as a special ability, along with other water-based abilities. By the highest level of the class the character may even gain the aquatic template. I don't know if they have something like that in another book or not. These characters can form an elite brotherhood whose purpose is to protect gnome ships and also help make the oceans safe for travel.
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Here is an idea that I just thought up:
A prestige class that is something like a cavalier, but one that is water based. He can gain the services of an aquatic mount, maybe even get water breathing as a special ability, along with other water-based abilities. By the highest level of the class the character may even gain the aquatic template. I don't know if they have something like that in another book or not. These characters can form an elite brotherhood whose purpose is to protect gnome ships and also help make the oceans safe for travel.
Kind of an aquatic outrider, huh?
would the mount follow the progression as out-lined for a paladins mount or just be a trained creature...
also using dolfins would probably work best, thogh sharks could add a flair of danger for everyone...